Ticker for March 18, 2014

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
March 18, 2014     March 18, 2014     March 18, 2014     March 18, 2014


You think you got it bad?

Well, as a matter of fact, some of you do. But when it comes to drought, the area
around the small town of Ropesville, Texas, to the SE of Lubbock



says "not so fast!" Repeated dust storms thanks to the prolonged drought in the
High Plains coupled with lots of plowed fields to the north have produced these
pictures, courtesy of Brian Fuchs at the National Drought Mitigation Center in
Lincoln (the folks that produce the U.S. Drought Monitor). Actual photographer
for these pics is Tim Benson. Welcome to the surface of Mars.






We've seen pictures resembling that in Oklahoma the last 3.5 years, especially
in the Panhandle. Probably some areas down in the southwest aren't too far off
from that, I would think. Looking up Altus' rainfall statistics since the drought
began in October 2010, the Mesonet site there has had a total of 49.83 inches of
liquid equivalent precipitation. That amounts to a cumulative deficit of -51.57
inches.

Again, -51.57 inches!!

Well, let's take a look forward once again, see what our rain chances are.

7-day (March 18-25)? Meh.



8-14 day CPC outlook? Hmmmmm. At least the expectation of near-normal precip for
those 7 days (March 25-31). Increased odds of above normal in the SE. QUIT
SHOWING OFF, SE OK!!



8-14 day temperature outlook? Grrrrr!



From the Canadians, the chances for accumulating at least 0.4 inches across the
state between now and April 2? Not bad, but that ain't a lot of precipitation
for two weeks.



How about the odds of getting at least an inch total? Not so great.



That's alright. We'll take what we can get and be happy (somewhat) for it.
Certainly better than those first pictures I showed.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org